Toot Toot! Tooting my own horn!

Well, this past Sunday was a great day at the Kendall County Fair here in South Texas... Our annual fair runs Thursday through Monday each year and each year I tell myself I'm gonna enter something in one of the categories. Well, this year I finally did it! It was the weekend of my little girl's first birthday (Happy Birthday E!!!) and we had a bunch of out-of-town company, so what better time! HAHA! But while I was perusing the calendar of events for the fair, thinking I would take all the out-of-town family to the fair on Sunday (Saturday was the big birthday bash), I noticed that there was an apple pie contest on Sunday afternoon with entries due by 1pm that day.

Now, I have been making Pennsylvania Dutch apple pie using a recipe from my grandmother for years now and have always gotten rave reviews, but most of those tasters were family and friends, so could I actually do any good in a contest? For anyone who's never made a pie in this style, it is not a "two-crust" pie like so many we see here in the south, but rather a "crumb crusted" pie with a streusel-type topping instead of a pastry crust on top. That in and of itself makes it a slight bit different than most apple pies served here in South Texas, so I wondered whether or not that difference would be good or bad when put up against some of the best pies in the county. Seems that it was a good thing in this case since I actually WON! Yes, my pie won the blue ribbon in the apple pie contest, beating out 9 other pies for the best of show. I can hardly believe it! This is the first time I have entered anything into the fair, so I am super pleased with my results. And there were sure some tasty looking pies up there! So, even though you won't find this pie recipe in ANY cookbook other than mine, I thought I'd share the photos and recipe with you, my friends in the blog-i-verse... Hope you enjoy them!

Pennsylvania Dutch Apple Pie

Serving Size : 8 Yield: "1 pie"

Pie Crust:

• 1 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• 1/4 cup lard
• 1/4 cup unsalted butter -- chilled & cut into pieces
• 1/8 cup ice water -- to 1/4 cup

Pie Topping:

• 2/3 cup flour
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 1/3 cup butter -- chilled & cut into pieces

Pie Filling:

• 2 lbs tart apples
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 2 tbsp flour
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 1 tsp cinnamon

For pie crust: In the work bowl of a food processor, combine flour, salt and sugar. Pulse to combine. Add lard and pulse 4-5 times. Add cold butter, a few pieces at a time, pulsing 1-2 seconds per addition. When butter is all in, add just enough water to cause crust to form a ball in the food processor. Form dough into a disk. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour or up to 3 days prior to use. When ready to use, roll out crust and place into a 9" pie pan.

For topping: In the work bowl of a food processor, combine flour and brown sugar. Pulse in butter until cornmeal consistency. Set aside.

For pie filling: Peel, core and slice apples thinly. I prefer to use a mix of two different kinds of apples rather than one, usually choosing one apple that holds it's shape and one that bakes down a bit more. Toss apples with lemon juice in a large working bowl. Combine flour, sugar, salt and cinnamon in another small bowl and then slowly toss with apples. Allow to set 5-10 minutes then place into unbaked pie crust. Any juice in the bottom of the bowl should be poured over the apples in the pie. Next, crumble topping over pie, patting lightly to adhere to apples. Bake at 375° until done (about 40-45 min or until golden brown). Serve with ice cream, whipped cream or sliced sharp cheddar cheese.

My additional notes: Now, some of you are gonna say... "Lard! Ugh!" but to you I have to say that the half-butter, half-lard crust is key. Nothing else flakes like lard and unlike crusts made completely with lard (and yes, there are quite a few recipes out there!) this gets the flavor of butter but the flake of the lard. And chilling the dough is KEY. Without chilling, you won't get the flake. Also don't over-process your dough. Over-processing it will result in a tough, chewy crust rather than a light flaky one. I also ALWAYS use two different kinds of apples. One that bakes down mushy like a Braeburn or Macintosh and one that holds its shape better like the granny smith. This gives the best of both worlds with some apple texture and some soft "gushy stuff".

I also used fresh ground cinnamon. It's really a snap to make if you get yourself a coffee grinder and dedicate it to spices only. If you aren't a coffee drinking household, let me advise you to STILL get a dedicated spices only grinder and keep one for coffee grinding as well. They're inexpensive and great to have on hand for those last minute coffee drinking guests. Don't do to your poor mother(in-law) what we did! My poor mom came to visit and we didn't think to mention that since we aren't a coffee drinking household (but do have a maker for guests), we only use the coffee grinder in our pantry for grinding spices...like dried hot peppers (hubby's obsession). Poor Mom! She really got a spicy cup of coffee the first time she used the grinder! Since then we've purchased a second grinder for coffee only and keep the "spice grinder" in the spice cabinet so as not to confuse people!

Ok, now on to the photos...

Here's a picture of the prize winning pie along with my application and recipe card just before I took it to the fairgrounds for judging:


And another one with a better shot of the overall pie:


And here are the distinguished judges! Two of the county sheriffs and one of the ladies auxiliary members. Officer Serna (on the left) also had the fair court duchess and princess to help him judge :) I could tell the girls were just too upset to have to help with this one! :)


And here is a photo of the three winners along with the Kendall county fair court for 2009-2010. Yep, that's me on the far right...



And finally a picture of the duplicate pie along with the ribbon and trophy I won. I baked two and took the best looking of the two to be judged, so my poor family didn't miss out at all...they just had to eat the less-pretty pie...

Next year I'm going to skip the apple pie contest, but I'm sure going to enter at least one of the other categories! This was too fun! Hope you'll give the pie recipe a try and let me know what you think... Back to posting recipe trials from the cookbooks soon!

Super Easy Blueberry Cobbler

Got a big container of ripe plump blueberries from Costco the other day and then forgot about them...when I remembered them stashed in the fridge, I thought I'd better put them to use right quick! And what better or quicker way to use them than in a great blueberry cobbler.

I've been a blueberry fan since I was a little bitty girl. My parents tell stories of me picking blueberries from the backpack carrier when I was a tot and entertaining the other harvesters since my mom wasn't aware I was eating them until she took me down to find me covered in blue mess. But here in Texas we don't get a lot of blueberries since they don't do too well in our heat. So when I get a nice box of them from anywhere, I LOVE to use them well.

This recipe is one of the easiest I've ever made for blueberry cobbler. It's from the cookbook How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman and comes together super quick and super easy. I really like this cookbook for it's explanations as well as it's recipes. Here's a link to it on Amazon:



The Recipe:

Blueberry Cobbler

Makes 6 to 8 servings
Time: About 1 hour

My friend John Willoughby found this recipe in a southern boardinghouse about ten years ago. I've since made it dozens of times, and it's always been a hit. I love this with blueberries, but you can make it with any fruit you like.

• 4 to 6 cups blueberries or other fruit, washed and well dried
• 1 cup sugar, or to taste
• 8 tablespoons (1 stick) cold, unsalted butter, cut into bits, plus some for greasing the pan
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• Pinch salt
• 1 egg
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Preheat the oven to 375°F. Toss the fruit with half the sugar, and spread it in a lightly buttered 8-inch square or 9-inch round baking pan.
2. Combine the flour, baking powder, salt, and 1/2 cup sugar in the container of a food processor and pulse once or twice. Add the butter and process for 10 seconds, until the mixture is well blended. By hand, beat in the egg and vanilla.
3. Drop this mixture onto the fruit by tablespoonfuls; do not spread it out. Bake until golden yellow and just starting to brown, 35 to 45 minutes. Serve immediately.

My Results:

As I mentioned, this is one of the quickest and easiest blueberry cobblers I've ever made and it was heavenly as well. Here's a photo of my ingredients before:

Because this recipe mostly comes together in a food processor, it is very easy. Toss the berries with the sugar and pour into the pan, then pulse the cobbler ingredients together in the food processor, mix in the egg and vanilla and then dollop it onto the berries. Here's what it looked like before entering the oven:



And here it is fresh out of the oven...


Now, the best part of this cobbler is that it isn't too "bready". I like shortcake, but to me cobbler should be less "cakey" and more fruity. And this recipe makes a beautiful cake/bread component along with the wonderfully saucy berries. Even without sprinkling with sugar, there is a sugary crunchy crack to the cobbler topping which is almost like a brulee topping and it is SO yummy! Definitely a do for the future...next we'll try it with our frozen hill country peaches! Hope you'll give this one a try and let me know how it works out for you!

If you like Piña Coladas...

Ok, "If you like Piña Coladas And getting caught in the rain. If you're not into yoga. If you have half a brain..." But seriously folks, this pie is a piña colada dessert that's super easy to make and super tasty. This one comes again from that great new Jell-O cookbook we got called: Jell-O Brand Fun and Fabulous Recipes. Here's the link, once again, on Amazon.com:


Today's recipe is a great combination of pineapple, coconut, lime, and twist of rum. All the things you'd find in a great piña colada drink, sans the glass :)

The Recipe:

Piña Colada Pie

Makes one 9-inch pie

• 1 pkg (4-serving size) JELL-O Lemon or Vanilla Flavor Instant Pudding and Pie Filling
• 1 1/2 cups sour cream
• 3 tbsp rum
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 2 tbsp milk
• 1 tsp grated lime rind
• 1 can (8 1/4 oz) crushed pineapple, drained
• 1 cup Baker's Angel Flake Coconut, plain or toasted
• 1 baked 9-inch pie shell or prepared graham cracker crumb crust, cooled

Combine pie filling mix, sour cream, rum, sugar, milk and rind in a medium bowl. With electric mixer at low speed, beat until blended and smooth, about 1 minute. Fold in pineapple and coconut. Spoon into pie shell. Chill about 3 hrs. Garnish with whipped topping, fruit and mint leaves, if desired.

*Substitution: Use 1/2 tsp rum extract, increasing milk to 1/4 cup.

My Results:

Again, because I'm trying to keep alcohol out of our cooking right now, I used imitation rum extract as instructed in the asterisked directions. Here's a pic of the ingredients:


I also chose to use sugar-free jello pudding and a graham cracker crumb crust in this pie, both of which were good choices for us, but you can opt for different ones if you like. Following the directions was quite easy except for draining the crushed pineapple. I only "partially" drained it, so my pie was probably a bit looser than intended, but it worked for me. Here's a picture of the pie just before refrigerating it:


I topped it with fresh made whipped cream (about 1 cup of heavy cream whipped up with about 2 tbsp confectioner's sugar until stiff) and then refrigerated it for about 5 hours (which was how long it took for hubby to get home from work and us to have dinner). Here's a picture of the slice of pie ready for hubby's taste test:

Gosh this stuff was good! Hubby liked it so much he declared he would have to finish the rest of the pie for breakfast since we were heading out of town in the morning and he didn't want it to be wasted (he didn't though!) and I loved it as well. I think that I would like it more with the actual rum in it, because the alcohol would give a bit of bite to the pie I believe, but we'll try that some other time. For now, we're very happy with the results and hope that brother-in-law, who's house-sitting this weekend, enjoys finishing it off for us :) Be sure to try this one and let me know what you think and check back tomorrow for a great gift idea as well as recipes since I can finally show you the gift recipes I made up for my sister's bridal shower gift (since the shower's tomorrow)...

Jello Fudge?

Ok, so I'm late in posting this, but yesterday I made a recipe out of the most recent addition to my cookbook shelves, Jell-o Brand's Fun and Fabulous Recipes. I wasn't sure how it was going to turn out but it was such an interesting idea that I had to give it a try. This is a recipe for fudge using Jell-o brand pudding in the microwave! Here's a link to the book on Amazon.com, but you'll have to find it used since it's no longer in print:



Now, here's today's recipe:

The Recipe:

Microwave Fast Fudge

• 3 tbsp butter or margarine
• 1 pkg (4-serving size) Jell-O Vanilla Flavor Pudding and Pie Filling
• 1/3 cup milk
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 cups confectioners sugar, sifted
• 1/3 cup chopped walnuts
• 1/3 cup BAKER'S Real Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips

Microwave:* Heat butter in 1 1/2-quart microwave-safe bowl at HIGH 35 seconds or until melted. Stir in pudding mix and milk. Cook 2 minutes longer or until mixture begins to boil, stirring every 30 seconds. Stir in vanilla and salt. With electric mixer at low speed, beat in sugar, 1 cup at a time, until smooth. (Mixture will be stiff.) Fold in nuts and chocolate. Press fudge evenly into 8x4-inch loaf pan that has been lined with waxed paper. Cover and chill until firm. Cut into squares.

Microwave Chocolate Mallow Fudge: Prepare Microwave Fast Fudge as directed, substituting chocolate flavor pudding and pie filling and 1/3 cup miniature marshmallows for the vanilla flavor pudding and the walnuts.

Microwave S'Mores Fudge: Prepare Microwave Fast Fudge as directed, substituting 1/3 cup each crushed graham crackers, miniature marshmallows and chunks of BAKER'S Semi-Sweet Chocolate for the walnuts and chocolate chips.

Microwave Coconut Macaroon Fudge: Prepare Microwave Fast Fudge as directed, substituting almond extract and 1/3 cup BAKER'S ANGEL FLAKE Coconut for the vanilla and walnuts. Omit chocolate chips.

*Ovens vary. Cooking time is approximate.

My results:

This was a fun recipe to attempt. I decided to cut the sugar a bit by using sugar-free pudding instead of regular and it worked just fine. I also decided in advance that I wanted to do the s'more's version of the fudge since I LOVE s'mores. Additionally, instead of using a regular loaf pan and waxed paper, I used a disposable loaf pan and sprayed it with PAM spray before putting the mix in to cool. Worked perfectly for me... Now onto the recipe trial. Here's my ingredients:



My first observation is that in my microwave, it took more like 45 seconds to melt the butter :) That done, I added the pudding powder and milk and was amazed at how dense the result was. It was the color of and texture of cooked egg yolks! I did cook it the additional 2 minutes, stirring every 30 seconds, but it was like stirring something solid around in the bowl rather than anything liquid-y. I added the vanilla and salt and beat with my hand mixer, adding the powdered sugar slowly. At this point it was very stiff, almost like play-dough in consistency. I folded in the chocolate (pieces of a Toll House Chocolatier Dark Chocolate [53% cacao] bar), graham cracker crumbs and mini marshmallows and then pushed it down into the pan. It wasn't very thick, but did look yummy. Here's the results before refrigeration:


Once it had chilled for an hour or so, I pushed it out of the pan and cut it into chunks. I'll be honest and say it wasn't 21 pieces like the recipe says it makes, more like 15, but who's counting :) And here's what the finished product looks like:


The marshmallows give it a kind of taffy-like texture, more like a nougat than fudge, but the flavor is really pretty good. Not a substitute for real creamy fudge like grandma makes, but a good quick fix when you don't have time or the inclination to make the "real thing". Definitely would make this again, perhaps trying the other variations and/or coming up with my own (Mounds fudge anyone?)... Hope you'll give this one a try and let me know what you think!

Yum Yum Rice Pudding!

Sorry for the late posting on this one, but the day got away from me yesterday and I didn't get my post up. We did, however, have a wonderful dish of rice pudding for dessert last night courtesy of The Boston Cooking School Cook Book by Fannie Merritt Farmer. This cookbook is one of my "antique" collection and was published in 1943. It is the seventh edition of the cookbook and one of my favorites. Here is a link the current version of the book (which may or may not have this recipe in it!) on Amazon.com


This recipe is from page 518 in this edition of the cookbook and is simply titled Rice Pudding. At the end of the recipe is an alternate version which uses peaches or pears and since I happened to have thawed some of the Fredericksburg peaches that we put up last summer, I decided to follow those directions and add the peaches at the end. Here is the original recipe.


The Recipe

Rice Pudding

• 1 cup cooked rice
• 2 cups milk
• 1 or 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp vanilla

Scald milk with rice. Beat egg yolks with sugar. Add hot mixture slowly. Cook in double boiler until thick and fold in egg whites, beaten stiff. Flavor with 1/2 tsp vanilla or grated rind and juice of 1/2 lemon. Or reserve egg whites, beat with 2 tbsp powdered sugar and 1/2 tsp lemon extract or vanilla and spread over pudding in baking dish: bake in moderate oven (350F) . Serves 4 to 6.

Pear or Peach Condé . Omit egg whites. Mound on serving dish. Cook canned peach or pear halves in their own syrup (sweetened to taste) until soft and arrange around rice. Sprinkle with finely chopped ginger. Serve hot.

My results:

I decided right away to double the recipe as I had 2 cups of leftover rice to use and as I mentioned also decided to follow the directions for the Peach Condé, so I decided to use a total of three eggs, separated since I was unsure whether to use 1 or 2 as called for. Here are the assembled ingredients, minus the peaches and ginger which I didn't decide to add until after taking the photo!



Mike separated the eggs and mixed them with the sugar for me (thanks honey!) while I scalded the milk and rice. For anyone who's never scalded milk before, the best description I can give you is that scalding is complete just before the milk comes to a boil. It becomes bubbly and a little thicker around the edges of the pan. When scalding milk be sure to stir frequently so it doesn't burn on the bottom of the pan!

One thing I noticed quickly is that the recipe does not specify when/where to add the salt in the process. I decided to add it to the sugar and yolks before adding the hot liquid, but you may decide to add it to the milk while it heats. Either way, make sure to add it at some point as the salt enhances the sweet flavors of the pudding and shouldn't be omitted.

After scalding, you'll want to add the hot mixture SLOWLY to the beaten yolks and sugar. It helps to have an assistant for this and I was blessed to have my best sous chef on hand, my husband Mike :) He slowly poured the hot milk mixture into the pan while I whisked the yolk/sugar/salt mixture. This keeps the yolks from scrambling (who wants scrambled egg in their pudding!) and allows the sugar to melt throughly.

Next I set the metal bowl on top of a simmer pan of water to act as a double boiler and began slowly stirring the mixture until it thickened. This is purely a judgment call, but I stopped cooking the pudding after about 20 minutes when it seemed to be pretty thick. It was still a little soupy while hot but after cooling thickened just right. This is the point at which I added the vanilla. You'll notice in the photo of my ingredients that my vanilla looks a lot like a vodka bottle...and you'd be right! I make my own vanilla using vodka and vanilla beans. This is the best vanilla and quite a bit cheaper than the extract you can buy in the grocery. Here is the photo of the finished pudding before serving:



You'll notice the peaches that I just reheated briefly in the microwave. The recipe doesn't specify, but I chose to use candied ginger instead of fresh for the topping. This was a great addition! Here is the bowl that was all ready to be eaten:



This was a very very good pudding! Hubby liked the pudding with and without the peaches, with and without the ginger and my daughter loved the pudding as I was sure she would. I refrigerated the leftovers and it set up very well when chilled and was just like I expect a good cold rice pudding to be. I'm sure this would also be great with some grated nutmeg on top, a spoonful of nice preserves, other fruit, etc. It is a great basic rice pudding and one I hope you'll try. Enjoy and be sure to check back later this evening when I'll post today's recipe for a nice tea sandwich filling!